South Nashville credits Goodlettsville with its Little League success

Aug. 16, 2013

Written by

Nick Cole

The Tennessean

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When the Goodlettsville Little League team won the national championship last summer, tens of thousands of Middle Tennesseeans watched the games on television and became fans of the youth heroes.

For some area baseball players, the Goodlettsville team’s success meant something else.

It spurred them to join the South Nashville Little League team. Now those same youths are competing in Williamsport, Pa., this week chasing their own national -- and perhaps -- world title.

“These kids decided to play in the league because of what happened last year,” South Nashville coach Chris Mercado said. “They wanted a chance at this (tournament), so they got in the league and played all their games and we formed an incredible team. I knew from the start when all of these people were signing up to play that we were going to be pretty good.”

“It was definitely a wonderful experience to watch those Goodlettsville boys take it as far as they did,” said Brenda Gonzalez, mother of pitcher Trae McLemore. “It was definitely an eye opener for the boys to possibly look into a different league… “My son came to me and said that he wanted to try something new. He’s only 12 once and he definitely wanted to try it (to make the Little League World Series).”

McLemore is one of several players on the team that left travel ball behind to make a run at something special with Little League in their season as 12-year olds.

South Nashville Little League president Randy Stevens said the organization saw a 20 percent uptick in sign-ups this season — an increase likely to continue in coming years thanks to the success of this year’s all-star team.

“I am already getting 10 to 15 e-mails and five to 10 phone calls a day with people trying to sign up,” Stevens said. “People are already asking about when they can get signed up to play for next spring.”

South Nashville has a unique demographic, with the players from areas including Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood, Thompson’s Station, Arrington and Grassland.

Williamson County does not have a local Little League, so the nearest destination for team members from that area is South Nashville (formerly known as South Hills), which is headquartered at Tusculum Elementary School.

“Williamson County does not play Little League, they play with Cal Ripken (League) and various other organizations,” Stevens explained. “Those kids are watching Little League on television and they want to get involved and dream of playing in that tournament, but based on where they lived they needed an opportunity.”

Stevens said the league was successful in an appeal to Little League last fall for an expansion of their boundaries to be able to include players like catcher Chris McElvain, a Thompson’s Station resident, on the roster.

“I started playing for South Nashville last season but I wasn’t inside the borders so I had to quit,” McElvain said. “But the coaches got the borders fixed and everything so that’s why I’m playing this year.”